The present invention generally relates to a mat that is used as a cushion, a bed, a mattress or the like. More particularly, the invention relates to a vibratile mat having a vibrating member disposed therein, in which by vibrations produced by this vibrating member, the stiffness in the muscle can be relieved and circulation of the blood in a user can be improved.
It has been considered that local pressing of points of the human body is effective for restoring or maintaining normal functions of respective portion of the human body, dissipating the fatigue and curing certain kinds of diseases, and it is the finger-pressure therapy of the Oriental medicine that embodies this idea.
According to this finger-pressure therapy, points of the human body are locally pressed intentionally by the finger bulbs. If an effect resembling the pressing effect according to the finger-pressure therapy is automatically obtained without this intentional pressing, for example, while a patient is lying, this will confer great healthful benefits upon the patient and be helpful for maintenance and promotion of health while dissipating the fatigue.
As means for producing this effect resembling the finger-pressing effect, there have heretofore been provided mattresses and cushions having a great number of projections on the surfaces thereof. In these conventional products, however, no intended finger-pressing effect can be obtained unless the projections are considerably hard and the projecting length is sufficiently large. More specifically, these projections butt against points of the body continuously with a constant pressing force under the load of the body weight and therefore, a discontinuous pressing with a varying pressing force, such as attained by the finger-pressure therapy, cannot be generated. For this reason, in order to intensify local pressing, the projections should be hard and the projection length should be increased. However, if the hardness of the projections is increased and the projection length is made larger, since pressing is continued on specific points on the human body selectively, the user soon feels pains on these points. Accordingly, these conventional products cannot be used as mats or cushions for inducing peaceful sleep. From the practical viewpoints, therefore, the projections should be formed of a soft and elastic material or the projection length should be considerably decreased. In this case, no satisfactory pressing effect can be expected.